Spinning and Twirling

The Fat Bottomed Santa left a Learn to Spin kit under the tree for me.



It's the Golding Learn to Spin Kit. I did give Santa some help by suggesting a few kits but this one was top of the wish list. I'd heard a lot on the Ravelry Spindlers group about Golding spindles and so was delighted to get one. It's a Tsunami 1.9 oz top whorl spindle. It's a middle weight spindle and top whorl means the flat disc bit (the whorl) is at the top when it spins.

There are loads of websites with great information about learning to spin. A really good one is The Joy Of Handspinning, it has videos too which are great for learning how to spin which is hard to describe in words. I Can Spin also has good videos. Interweave's Spin Off magazine has a lot of very helpful free PDFs. Abby Franquemont's blog is very entertaining and she seems like the kinda person who has forgotten more about spinning than I'll ever know.

I'd read a lot about spindle spinning so was really looking forward to trying it out properly this time. My previous attempts to spin with a heavy homemade bottom whorl drop spindle were terrible. I couldn't get the hang of it at all. I was ok with the spinning wheel but not with the spindle. At the moment I can't afford a spinning wheel and I want to see if I really like spinning before I get a wheel.

The spindle came with Spin It by Lee Raven which is a great introduction to how to spin your own yarn. There was also 2oz of grey Coopworth wool roving to spin.

I found that the secret to spinning on the drop spindle was to draft the roving before spinning. I split the roving in two then in two again. I then pulled each of these lengths out before spinning them. I practiced and to my delight I started getting the hang of it. I started with the park and draft method of spinning where you spin the spindle and stop it by parking it between your knees. You can then let the twist run up into the fiber at your own pace. By the end I was able to draft while the spindle spun and dropped.





There's a photo of my singles on the spindle. I wound the twisty singles off the spindle into a ball. I then spun the other length of roving into singles as well. Since I got this far I decided I might as well try ply the two singles together as well. A photo of my low tech solution to not having fancy things like a lazy kate is below.

When you make the singles you twist the spindle clockwise. When you ply the two together you twist the spindle counter clockwise. Something magical then happens, the twisty singles become well behaved 2 ply yarn that doesn't twist.



I wound the finished yarn off the spindle onto a picture frame, a low tech solution to not having fancy things like a niddy noddy. I tied it up then soaked it in hot water to set the twist. After it dried it was different than before it was soaked. The yarn became even less twisty and softer with a nice halo of wispy bits.







There's more shots of my yarn, mine! It's a bit uneven in places but with practice hopefully it'll get more even and consistent. I have no fiber left now and I want some more. I can feel some shopping coming on. I've resolved this year that I won't buy any more yarn until I've used up the stuff I have. But making my own yarn is different... isn't it?

Hopefully I can get a good selection of different fibers to try out. Currently on the list to try is blue faced leicester, merino, silk hankies and alpaca. I'm really excited to try spinning silk. Silk is my favourite yarn and silk mawatas are much cheaper than silk yarn.

A&E Ale

Happy new year everyone!

My 2008 had an interesting end. I ended up in hospital on Stephen's night. A&E isn't a great place to be as you get tests and wait for a bed at three in the morning. They thought I had a lung blood clot so they kept me in to do some tests. A CT showed I had pneumonia. Last time I went to hospital I ended up staying there for two months so to get away with pneumonia really wasn't so bad. The hospital had an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug so no visitors were allowed. That was as bad as it sounds. Relatives could leave food parcels and supplies at the front door. It did feel like a scene from a Dickens novel. The nurse felt sorry for me as I had no chocolate as my bag of supplies hadn't arrived so she gave me some emergency Roses from the nurses supply.

Luckily my Mum delivered my latest crochet project along with books and proper food. It's the Alpine Frost Scarf from Interweave Crochet Magazine which I subscribed to. It's a good price for the year and as a bonus it was delivered just in time for Christmas. The patterns are lovely, some crochet patterns aren't great but the ones in this magazine are gorgeous. I had a skein of Lorna's Laces Lion and Lion in the colorway purple iris so I decided to make it into the scarf. Since Lion and Lamb is worsted weight and the pattern is for lace weight yarn I modified the pattern to give the width scarf I wanted and used a bigger hook.



One of the old ladies on the ward was very impressed with the scarf. I think in this yarn and colour it looks like seaweed or something. The Lion and Lamb yarn is an expensive treat but I'm not sure it's worth it. The start of the scarf has gone a bit fuzzy and I haven't even finished it yet. It might not wear so well. Manos del Uruguay silk blend is the same type of yarn with beautiful colours and it's cheaper. I know it wears well since a cowl I made from it a year ago is still going strong despite constant wear.



The hospital food was awful as usual but was made all the worse knowing I was missing all the lovely christmas leftovers. At tea time I was so glad I'd been sent a bag of cheese and onion crisps as it livened up the plain cheese sandwich and tea. This is the first year I didn't eat christmas pudding every day for a week. I suppose it's a head start on the new years diet.





On christmas day I did have some nice christmas beers. The Anchor christmas ale was lovely and went very well with the turkey and ham. I think the Samichlaus was maybe a little heavy with the pudding. Though at that stage I was pretty full so maybe I should try that combination again.

I got home on the monday but had to go back in to hospital on tuesday as I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics. I've had anaphylaxis from antibiotics before so I was taking no chances this time. I've resolved not to get sick again after this so I don't need antibiotics anymore. Thankfully by wednesday evening I was ok with my new antibiotic and was sent home. I had a very quiet new years eve with no beer or parties but it was nice all the same. My christmas ale stash is quite intact. I'm with Boak and Bailey in thinking that january is a ludicrous time of year to contemplate giving up beer. We need something to cheer us up in this dark cold month.

I decided to name my Kolsch A&E Ale after my adventures. Unfortunately when I got back to Dublin I discovered that the better bottle I was storing it in had leaked. There is some left but it doesn't look very good, it's turned brown. The bottle leaked as the valve wasn't closed properly. Lesson learned: make sure you hear a click when you close the high flow valve.

Better luck in 2009 eh?

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas!

Or happy whatever over eating festival you celebrate at this time of year. I hope you all have a nice break. I would like to thank anyone who reads this blog. I love writing it, it's nice to have a place to keep a record of all the crafty things I do. It's really great when someone comments on a post.

So I'll raise a glass, of homebrewed beer of course, to you reader over the festive season and I'll see you here for more brewing and knitting/crochet adventures in 2009.

In our house during December the Fat Bottomed Santa makes a majestic journey around the room dropping presents as he goes.

He crocheted our turtles some festive santa's helper hats...



He made Monkey a dapper new waistcoat



He helped with the brewing



He brought some festive brews



He also expressed a wish to see more handmade gifts in the world



Even the dog isn't forgotten

From The Fat Bottomed Santa's Majestic Christmas Journey

He's off tonight to make the final leg of his journey. He's been quiet the last day and muttering things about space time and presents. I hope he makes it to your house to drop some presents by your tree.

A Necklace for Rebecca and Darkside Cowl

My friend Rebecca is off on her travels next year. It was her 30th birthday at the start of this month and Christmas is coming up too. I decided a pretty special necklace was in order. I set about designing something she would love. I thought nothing too big or bling would be nice on her. She said she'd like darker colours and no pearls. Here it is.



Black teardrop swarovski crystals are spaced with silver bead covers and bicone smoke swarovski crystals leading up into alternate smaller black and smoke bicone swarovskis and finished with glass black seed beads. The clasp is rhodium plated silver with a crystal in the middle, there had to be some bling!



The clasp was finished with a wire guard and a crimp cover bead.



Here is the lady herself wearing the necklace at her birthday party. It went very well with the black prom dress she was wearing. She told she got lots of compliments on the necklace. I think she liked it.



I also finished the Darkside Silk Cowl that I was making for my Mum for Christmas. She doesn't read this blog so I can put up pictures.



I think it turned out really well. The silk is so soft and warm. In the end this was the best pattern for the yarn. I think I may have bound off a little tightly but if it needs to be fixed I can do it after Christmas.

Christmas Beer and Phuca

It's getting very near Christmas and the beer stocks were low. So we made a trip to Redmonds Off License in Ranelagh which can be found on the ultra useful Beermapping website. I wanted some beer to go with my Christmas dinner.



I decided the Anchor Christmas beer would go well with the dinner and the Samichlaus will be savored with some pudding and cream.

Dave found some lambics to try. He's already a fan of Boon Kriek but he hadn't tried the Chapeau ones before. I still can't drink lambic beer. To me it's just too sour and off tasting. I'll keep trying it though.



I got some Brooklyn Lager which I love, it's such a tasty well balanced beer. It's very expensive here so a six pack is a festive treat. I'm hoping their IPA will be just as nice. I'm also interested to see what the Sierra Nevada anniversary ale is like.

I also got some Meantime beers, the Pale ale and the London Pale Ale. I've only ever tasted their IPA which was good so am keen to see what these are like. Is it sad to be impressed by the nice bottles they use?



On friday night before heading out we went to get a bite to eat in the Bull and Castle. We got a table thanks to the great bar manager. I remembered they should have a new seasonal special beer from The Franciscan Well Brewery. I asked for it and was rewarded with a pint of Phuca their spiced Christmas ale. Phuca is the Irish word for ghost and it's a good name conjuring up images of a dark cold night with lots of fog and maybe spirits abroad. What could be better than sitting in with this beer instead. It's lovely, dark and spicy with a big hit of ginger and cloves. The food in the Bull and Castle was excellent, I had roast beef and Dave had a lamb stew, both were very tasty. The beer went well with the hearty winter dinner. It wasn't too expensive either. The Bull and Castle is what Irish pubs should be.

Cold Weather Kolsch, Better Bottles and A Suspect Yeast Choice

More brewing! It's the season for beer after all. Ed, a friend of mine wanted to see an extract brew in action before he does one. He's been very successfully brewing kits for a while now so he knows a lot of it anyway. I ordered some stuff from the Homebrew Company which as always are great to deal with.

I thought Ed was brewing his own beer with me supervising but it turned out I was brewing for me. Since it's been so cold I thought I could make a lager. But I had no lager yeast, if I'd known I'd have got some. So in the absence of lager yeast I decided to use ale yeast and ferment cold to make a kolsch or blonde ale style beer. I raided the freezer and came up with some german hops.

Recipe:

10 Liter batch

Muntons Light Dried Extract 1kg

Hops:
60 minutes - 17g Hallertauer (2.1%AA)
20 minutes - 20g Tettnang (4.5%AA) and 18g Halltertauer
5 minutes - 9g Hallertauer and 6g Tettnang

Yeast: Danstar Nottingham

OG: 1.040
The alcohol should turn out at about 4% ABV



During the boil the lads disappeared upstairs to watch the rugby leaving me to the brewing. I did manage to get them into the kitchen for the last bits where the wort was chilled and transferred. The yeast was pitched and Ed took a well earned break with a nice Clotworthy Dobbin.



I'm fermenting this brew in a Better Bottle. I got three of these for fermenting beer and mead in. I'm very pleased with them so far. They are light which when you're a weakling like me is a big advantage over heavy glass carboys. I am prone to dropping things that are heavy. Dropping a heavy plastic bottle of beer is annoying but dropping a glass carboy would probably mean a trip to accident and emergency.

This evening I transferred Westley's Winter Warmer to secondary. The better bottle made this very easy. I just attached a hose and opened the tap, also the clever valve means you can get the last of the beer out and not lose so much. I checked the gravity, it's down to 1.014 which gives it an alcohol of 5.7% ABV. This should rise a little in secondary. It should be ready to bottle just before christmas. The better bottle was very easy to clean too.

Of course we had a taste of the beer. It's shaping up nicely, spicy with oranges and stronger than I normally brew. There's a hint of spiciness but I would have liked more fruity yeast character with it. I think I should have used a belgian yeast like Safbrew S33 which I had in the fridge. It would have been more complex and fruity like Westmalle or something. Instead I used Nottingham as in theory it wouldn't interfere with the spices. Maybe I should have went mad and used the S33. Though when it's bottled and carbonated it might be a different story. I might be saying I'm glad I used the Nottingham.

Westley's Winter Warmer

It's pretty cold here for the start of december. Our new dog is settling in well and we brought him for a few walks in the frost over the weekend. He's so wooly that he didn't seem to mind the cold as much as we did. We decided to call him Westley. For the nerds among you yes that is Westley from The Princess Bride. For those who don't know it, it's the best film and book ever. He's a good dog apart from a tendency to dig up and eat everything in the garden. There goes my growing hops idea.

I haven't brewed since I made my all grain stout. I bottled some of the stout and the rest is in a barrel where it's supposed to be waiting until it's nearer christmas before it gets drank. This hasn't happened, myself and Dave are supping away on the stout. It's lovely, it's roasty and it has a lovely chocolate taste to it as well. It's not quite fizzy enough so I may have to carbonate it a little with some CO2 if I ever get round to buying the attachment for the barrel. It might be gone before then.

I wanted to make a warming spicy winter beer. I pulled out my recently purchased Complete Joy of Homebrewing and found a likely recipe. Then I set to work modifying it. I don't think I've ever made a beer exactly as it was in the book. This isn't because I haven't wanted to but because the ingredients are hard to get so I usually modify the recipe to suit what I actually have.

Westley's Winter Warmer

15 Litre Batch.

Grain:
180g Crystal Malt (Steeped in 6L of water at 67 Degress Celsius for 30 minutes)
1.052g Light DME
1 kg Medium DME
About 450g Honey

Hops:
12g Centennial Hops @ 60 minutes from end of boil
10g Cascade Hops @ 5 minutes from end of boil

Spices:
10 minutes from end of boil
Rind of two oranges
10g grated ginger root
cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1/4 of a nutmeg grated
1 tsp liqurice root powder
4 whole cloves

Sachet of Danstar Nottingham Yeast

OG: 1.060



I wanted a high alcohol beer to give a bit of warmth to all those spices. As well the hops should add more citrus to the beer. I have no idea if it will be nice but that's the fun of homebrewing, making beer you'd never be able to buy. Hopefully it'll come out as a spicy warm beer.



As always I got some knitting done while waiting for the pot to boil. This is the Darkside Cowl I'm making for my Mum for christmas. I love the pattern and it's knitting up fairly quickly. The silk is so beautiful, photos don't do it justice.



I know this photo is blurred but the dog wouldn't stay still. They never do. This is Westley with his batch of beer, he tried eating the hops when I emptied the pot but he didn't seem so impressed with them. Maybe he'd prefer malt? That's one of my better bottles which I hope will make fermentation a bit easier. They have a tap on the bottom which you can adjust so it's just above the sediment so that should make racking to secondary and bottling the beer so much easier. The airlock is a dry trap which is pretty clever.

Jewelery Making Workshops - Weeks 5,6 and 7

I haven't posted any pictures of the last three jewelery making workshops so thought I better catch up. I've been busy making my own jewelery at home in addition to the classes. I like it a lot as it's very fast to design and make a piece of jewelery.

Week 5 - Charm Style Jewelery

In this class we made lots of charms which we then attached to a chain using jump rings. Making the charms is a lot of fun. Choosing the beads and the order to put them in takes a while though. I turn magpie as I try to choose my beads. It's usually best if I pick a colour scheme or theme or else I'd be there all evening trying to pick them out. When we had the beads picked out we set to work putting them on head pins and bending the wire into eye loops. The eye loops were then attached to the chain using jump rings. I hadn't used jump rings before and found them pretty fiddly to open and close properly.

I went for a black theme for the bracelet and ear rings and millefiori beads for the necklace. They are lovely to wear and jangle when you move.

The Bracelet and Ear Rings


Necklace


Week 6 - Spiral Cuff

In this class we made a cuff using memory wire and a spiral wire tool. The spiral tool was used to wind wire into curled sections. The beads and pearls were then threaded on three pieces of memory wire using spacers. This was pretty difficult since the memory wire doesn't want to do what you want it to do. The cuff looked great at the end though.





Week Seven - Get Jiggy Jewelery

The jiggy jewelery class was a lot of fun. Mostly because I got to bash wire with a hammer. The jiggy board is used to wind wire into patterns. Then the fun part, bashing the wire to set the pattern. We then connected all the pieces into a bracelet. We also made ear rings. In the class the website Wig Jig was recommended and they seem to have loads of free project ideas.





Next week is the last class. I'll be sad when the course is over, it's been great and I've learned so much. The stuff I make myself looks so much better now that I have the knowledge and tools.